WUNRN
Press
Statement - Turkey - WWHR-New Ways
Women for Women's Human Rights-New Ways of
Turkey
We will Continue to Resist the Authoritarian and Sexist Policies of
the Turkish Government!
As one of the 79 members of Taksim Solidarity Platform on Gezi Park, Women for Women’s Human Rights (WWHR)-New Ways continues to insist on the following demands of the Platform:
* Gezi Park must remain a Park.
* All those who were detained across Turkey
during the protests for exercising one of their most fundamental democratic
rights—the right to assemble and demonstrate—must be released immediately and
not be subject to prosecution.
* All police and officials, who used or
ordered the use of violence on protesters that resulted in two deaths, grave
injuries such as head trauma and sight loss of almost 50 people, and wounded
over 4,500 must be investigated, prosecuted and those responsible should be
removed from duty,
* The use of gas bombs and related materials
must be banned.
* All public squares throughout Turkey should
be opened to peaceful demonstrations.
These demands were jointly formulated
by a very large and pluralistic community. While PM Erdoğan persistently
fails to see this fact, his authoritarian and alienating statements with zero
respect for democracy have resulted in police brutality, leading millions of
citizens across the country to rush to public squares to defend their most
fundamental human rights and dignity. Youth, environmentalists, women's
activists, health workers, teachers, lawyers, academics, unionized and
non-union workers, Non Governmental Organizations, citizens, the faithful and
non-believers, LGBTIQ individuals, artists, athletes, animal lovers,
homemakers, soccer fans, professional organizations - women and men from all
segments of the society have united at peaceful street demonstrations
nationwide. All these groups and individuals came together to safeguard
fundamental human rights and freedoms and have succeeded in bringing issues
such as equality, democracy, pluralism and diversity to top of the agenda in
Turkey, for which rights-based organizations have been advocating for decades.
Women are on the frontlines of the resistance
In terms of democracy, equality and
freedoms, this resistance is especially meaningful and important to us as
women. According to data compiled by the Istanbul Feminist Collective, at least
three women are murdered daily in Turkey by a male member of their family or an
ex-partner, although a large number of them have filed for protection orders
against the perpetrators. While these murders are ongoing, PM Erdoğan
continually makes public statements that he "does not believe in gender
equality." In addition, the government is becoming increasingly vocal in
its discourses and policy initiatives that infringe on women’s sexual and
reproductive rights. Especially in the last five years as women’s rights
organizations, our struggle has transformed from efforts to advance our rights
to preserving our existing, hard-earned rights.
The “State Ministry Responsible for Women’s
Affairs” was abolished and turned into “Ministry of Family and Social Policies”
in 2012, as governmental policies have been geared towards confining women to
the roles of “wife and mother” rather than “empowering them as equal
individuals.” PM Erdoğan has been publicly urging women to have three (or
even five) children, and has attempted to ban abortion, which has been legal up
to ten weeks in Turkey since 1983. Although we, as the women's movement, have
succeeded in halting the attempt of the PM to ban abortion also thanks to international support we have mobilized, it
has become very difficult women to exercise their right to abortion in
practice. Presently, abortion services are not provided to women in many public
hospitals throughout Turkey. Women who visit public healthcare clinics for pregnancy
tests or abortions are being codified, and in some cases, their parents or
spouses are being informed without prior consent. The state services to provide
information and counseling on contraceptive methods have become very
restricted.
Turkey ranks the lowest among all OECD
countries in terms of women’s employment, and while the government has pledged
to improve Turkey’s status in this respect, at the same time it continues to
develop and implement contradictory policies to this promise, such as policies
that encourage women to “work part-time” or work as are home-based workers,
which are clearly discriminatory against women.
PM Erdoğan also continues its attacks on
women's rights based on “morality” norms, in relation to how “girls” or women
have to behave in public. The sexist discourses and actions of the PM and his
government that seek to impede women’s basic women's rights and freedoms, are
simply an organic extension of the authoritarian social engineering they
displayed against the Gezi Park protesters. Thus, today, women from all walks
of life have risen against these discourses and policies, and taken a place on
the frontlines of this resistance to defend their rights.
We Demand a Truly Democratic Government Respectful of a
Participatory System based on Freedom and Peace!
We
urge the Prime Minister and the government to hear our voice, and urgently
establish a respectful and constructive dialogue process to take the necessary
steps and meet our democratic and legitimate demands!
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